Yang Fudong

Monday, November 1, 2004

Yang Fudong: Recent Works

Los Angeles Premiere

(2004, DVD, 60 min)

Shot in moody, haunting black-and-white images, films and installations by Shanghai-based Yang Fudong, such as An Estranged Paradise and Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Garden, investigate contemporary China as it develops into a capitalist economy. His work has been exhibited at Documenta 11, Kassel; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Venice Biennale; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; among others, and is currently featured in the Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Renaissance Society, Chicago; and the Liverpool Biennial. His work will be included in Past in Reverse: Contemporary Art of East Asia at the San Diego Museum of Art from November 6 through March 6.

REDCAT will present three recent works by Yang Fudong. Liu Lan (2003, 35mm/video, 14 min, black and white), shot in a way that elegantly reconstructs the tropes of Chinese landscape painting, is a short, elegiac piece about femininity and lost love. Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest is a 5-part work-in-progress (planned to last up to 120 minutes) inspired by the gathering of talented intellectuals during the Wei and Jin dynasties. REDCAT will show the two parts that have been completed so far. In Part I (2003, 35mm/video, 30 min, black and white), the actors and actresses, strikingly dressed in early 20th century clothes, ascend Huangshan Mountain, talk with one another and meditate on life. As their desultory conversations unfold, longings for romance gradually emerge. By contrast, Part II (2004, 35mm/video, 45 min, black and white) takes place in modern times, in urban settings, and is more clearly about the sexual confusion and the cruelty of the relationships between genders in a society of shifting values.

REDCAT NEWS

The New Original Works Festival (NOW) is a three-week interdisciplinary program offering a variety of short works and some longer projects in their Los Angeles premieres. The Festival takes place in July and August and artists are given development support through rehearsal space, technical assistance, access to equipment and an honorarium. Projects are selected through a proposal process, with an emphasis on new projects in development and/or early career artists.